This article is about the magazine Autosport. For the sport, see Auto racing.
Autosport is the title of a weekly magazine covering motorsport, published in the United Kingdom every Thursday by Haymarket Publishing. It was first published in 1950 by Gregor Grant. It is often referred to as the 'Bible' of motorsport.
Its star writers include Mark Hughes who contributes the majority of the Formula One reports. Its current editor-in-chief is Damien Smith. Former editors include John McIlroy, Quentin Spurring and Peter Foubister. Matt Bishop, former editor of F1 Racing, is also the Group Editor. Cartoonist, Jim Bamber is one of its other regular staff member, dealing with cartoons of motorsport news topics.[1] Another cartoonist to have a regular appearance from 1970 to 1994,[2] when Bamber took over his regular slot following his battle with cancer, is Barry Foley, with his Team Catchpole strip.[3]
As well as covering all significant worldwide motorsport events, Autosport also covers the UK national, club and historic racing scene in some depth, including a weekly column by Marcus Pye. Autosport also organizes the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award for young British racing drivers. David Coulthard and Jenson Button are both on the list of previous winners.
In addition to the magazine, the publishers also maintain a website which covers much of the same area. In 2005, autosport.com merged with AtlasF1, a rival Formula One news website. For a short time the website was called Autosport-Atlas but in January 2006 the name changed back to autosport.com. Despite the merger and name change much of the AtlasF1 team is still working for the website.
The same company also organises a motorsport-themed exhibition called Autosport International, which takes place every January at the NEC Birmingham, UK. It reflects the magazine's coverage with displays from karting and grassroots motorsport to GTs and Formula One. Most industry players have presence there. It's the largest such exhibition in the world
Autosport shares the same name as the Japanese weekly magazine which covers the same topic.